Merger of Fata with KP may prove more problematic

ISLAMABAD: Vigorous demands calling for merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) apart, the implementation of the federal cabinet decision approving recommendations of the Sartaj Aziz committee including its amalgamation into this province will be an uphill task, entailing a host of complications.

Besides, it will take a considerably long time if it was at all executed. It will be a phased merger. For the first time, local bodies elections are planned to be held in the Fata after the 2018 general polls. The widely condemned Frontier Crime Regulation (FCR) will be replaced with a new law. The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and Peshawar High Court will be extended to the Fata.

The Fata MPs and most political parties have been urging the government to immediately accept the proposals of the committee led by Adviser to the Prime Minister Sartaj Aziz particularly the one relating to merger. Even the Awami National Party (ANP) had threatened a long march on Islamabad, which may now call off the protest.

Those pressing for amalgamation of the Fata into KP had been taking a simplistic view of the issue. When the system prevailing in the tribal region since decades is to be changed, it is bound to cause massive ripples at different levels. It is easier said than done.

Everybody vividly recalls that mere change of name of the then NWFP (North Western Frontier Province) to KP as aggressively demanded by the ANP had caused a massive upheaval and claimed some lives in the Hazara Division. This had also triggered calls for bifurcation of other provinces. The then government had assuaged the ANP by accepting its demand for being its trusted ally.

The present cabinet decision will certainly be welcomed by the lobby that had been egging on the government to accept the recommendations of the Sartaj Aziz committee specifically the merger of the tribal area into KP.

However, some experts had been strongly opposed to the amalgamation for cogent reasons. Former ambassador Ayaz Wazir has written that there are divisions among the people with one group wanting the Fata to be made a province while the other wishing to see it merged into KP. Therefore, the best course of action would be to hold a referendum of the people of the area. The problem is that the word referendum carries a stigma because of its misuse by military dictators in the past for their own interests. Therefore, it is important that it should be transparent and completely non-controversial so that it is acceptable to all. It needs to be conducted under the supervision of a tribal leader, whose neutrality and integrity is above board. For a change, let the people of Fata speak for themselves. That is the only positive way to bring Fata out of the abyss that it has been in for the last many decades. At this volatile time, any other experiment would be asking for serious trouble, he opined.

Former interior secretary and ex-KP chief secretary Rustum Shah Mohmand has written that a group of MPs who won their seats by just a handful of votes are now claiming to have a mandate to change the status of the tribal area. That is a ludicrous assertion. Because firstly they do not live in the tribal area nor would they ever contemplate to settle in their ancestral homes with families in the foreseeable future. Secondly having been returned to Parliament by winning just a couple of thousands of votes can they have an authority to change the complexion of the area? A dispassionate examination of the whole scenario would show that the scheme of integration would not be implemented without creating utter chaos, confusion that would not only impede progress and development but would generate a climate of hostility that would lead to long-term insecurity and lawlessness .

Rustum Shah Mohmand said that to subject the people of the tribal area to the rigours and agonies of our decrepit criminal justice system would be unjust and unwarranted. Imagine for a moment the SHOs operating in areas like Tirah or Shawal or Nawa pass! Would the people of the tribal area be prepared or willing to accept the pain of pursuing their criminal or civil disputes in courts for years or decades? Would they have the resources to engage lawyers and pay hefty fees for years with no end in sight? Would merger not lead to a dramatic escalation in the number of disputes over land, shops and property? If the extension of jurisdiction of superior courts is any answer to normalising an area then look at Karachi where all the laws of the land extend, where courts are functioning but has Karachi seen peace or normalcy for the last nearly three decades?

He wrote that those who are in the vanguard of the movement for merger are comfortably lodged in cities of KP or Islamabad. The few political parties which are supporting merger are motivated purely by their own narrow political agendas — namely, hoping to secure a couple of seats in provincial or national legislatures. They see in merger a dream coming true and have no regard for the colossal damage that the measure would inflict on a sensitive region that would assume more importance as new regional alliances take shape, he wrote.